


Exchange

by ThatSinga



Series: Rowvember 2019 [5]
Category: Saints Row
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-08
Updated: 2019-11-08
Packaged: 2021-01-25 16:37:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21359332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatSinga/pseuds/ThatSinga
Series: Rowvember 2019 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1537489
Kudos: 8





	Exchange

It was a chilly night in Stilwater. The summer's heatwave neared its end and the leaves that decorated the trees throughout the city gradually turned a more yellowy shade. During the day it was still pretty warm but at night it cooled down considerably.

A cold wind blew through the The Mills where the Boss was currently waiting, making her shiver slightly.  
Velvet was wearing a dark knee-length, double-breasted pea coat, black skin-tight jeans and matching high heel-boots. A wine-red scarf was wrapped around her neck, while her hands were kept relatively warm in a pair of fingerless gloves. She didn't like donning that many clothes but she'd kill herself by wearing anything less. These lower temperatures simply didn't allow for her preferred attire such as thigh-high latex boots and a skimpy crop top.

The coat was great for concealing and carrying multiple weapons, she was strapped with one of her trusty Vice 9 pistols, some spare magazines, a Mac10, two smoke grenades just in case she needed to make a quick getaway as well as an additional holster on the side of her left boot which held a short blade as usual. Velvet hoped she wouldn't have to use any of them tonight but she liked to be prepared.

"What's taking him so long?" she thought as she checked the time on her phone, 11:07pm, he was supposed to meet her here at 11. He better show up now that she's waited here in the cold for so long.

Just as she finished that thought, she heard a car pull up on the side of the road outside of the factory compound. She perked her ears to make out any suspicious noises but all she could hear after the engine turned off, was a single car door open and shut, followed by a single pair of feet walking in her general direction.  
"So he did come alone, good. Unless he has backup waiting inside the car, please don't be stupid and bring reinforcements," she thought.  
The Boss wasn't looking for a fight, not this time. In the letter that Velvet wrote for this person, she explicitly asked to meet one on one, no backup for either of them. She kept her promise and came alone, that was probably stupid of her, since the last time she met with someone alone, she got blown to hell.

She now had visuals on the figure making its way towards her, looked to be dressed in a dark overcoat similar to hers, so it was safe to assume they were carrying as well.  
As the person came closer they slowed their pace carefully but didn't stop until standing a good ten feet away from her.

"It's been a while," the man spoke in a strange yet familar voice.  
"Can't say the same," Velvet calmy disagreed.  
"Well, uh, I guess that comes naturally with being in a coma for almost 3 years," he tried to keep his cool.  
"What, no hug?" she said after a moment of silence, pretending to be disappointed  
"I ain't getting close enough for you to shank me," the man replied.  
"Suit yourself," Vivi shrugged.  
"So what is this, why'd you invite me out here?" the person was suspicious of this whole situation.  
"To talk," the Boss kept it short.  
"Talk? Well okay, whaddaya wanna talk about?"  
"I don't know honestly," she admitted, "I had hoped I'd find the words when I saw your face again. But the man I'm seeing right now is not the same I called a friend years ago. Instead, maybe I should just shoot you right where you stand, Troy." she squinted her eyes at him.

Time hadn't been kind to the now chief of police. His cheeks sagged a little, his mustache had hints of grey in it, bags under his eyes. He wasn't the same young man she'd known as the second of command of the 3rd Street Saints. Maybe locking up his 'friends' took a toll on him or it was just the stress that came with his position. Can't be easy being in charge of the police force in a city like Stilwater, especially with all the recent trouble she had caused.

Troy tensed up at that statement, he clenched his hand around the grip of the .44 Shepherd he was holding underneath his jacket.

"I had hoped it wouldn't come to this, uh," he just realized he didn't even know her name, back on the Row they simply called her 'Playa' or 'Squirt', but she'd probably go through with shooting him if he called her either now.  
"I like what ya did with your hair," Troy tried to change topics.  
"Thanks, Aisha did that for me," the Boss didn't sound threating when she said that.  
"Great, tell her she did a good job from me," he was still unsure how to handle this situation, he couldn't read her intentions at all. It was obvious to him that she was holding a gun under that jacket just as he was and that she was well aware of that fact.  
Velvet shook her head,"I won't tell anyone about this, Troy," she assured him before adding, "And neither will you."

That statement either meant he'd die today or she'll let him off and this meeting never took place. It also implied that she expects to walk away from this as well. Then again, the leader of the 3rd Street Saints probably didn't call him out here to turn herself in and if she wanted him dead she'd probably have planted a bomb in his office instead of leaving a letter on his desk.

"Alright, you wanted to talk? Let's talk," his tone was all business now, "I...," Troy thought how to word it properly, "don't hate you," he started in order to set the record straight.  
"Aw that's nice of you, Troy, I don't hate you, too!" she jested in a sweet voice.  
"Great! I mean, good that we got that out of the way, heh," he didn't know what to say again.

"Do you know what happened that night of the explosion?" she cut straight to the chase, her serious tone a stark contrast to her prior joke.  
"I figured you'd wanna know," he sighed, "So I've brought these," the chief said as he reached into his pocket. Velvet quickly pulled out the pistol she's been holding for the last 20 minutes and pointed it right at his skull, a hint of genuine fear was visible on his face before he collected himself.  
"You're quick," he remarked, "No need to be so cautious, it's just tape recordings, you have my word."  
"The last time I let my guard down I got blown the fuck up, don't you dare ask me to be careless!" she spat with more venom than she meant to.  
"I hear ya, lotta folk out there gunning for you, rest assured, I'm not one of 'em. If I wanted you gone I'd have a sniper positioned on that highground over there," he pointed towards the catwalks that wrapped around one of the massive silos.  
"Pretty careless," he stressed the word, "of you to tell me where you'll be and choosing such an open area with little to no cover, surrounded by vantage points."  
"How would you know I don't have a crew watching us from there as well?" she snarled at him.  
He shrugged, "I know you'd want to take the kill yourself, you always liked working alone."

The Boss slowly lowered her gun, for some reason she trusted him. Maybe it was because to her those 3 years she's spent in a coma went by in a flash and her brain still didn't properly register that he was supposed to be an enemy yet.  
Or maybe she could tell from his voice and body language that he wasn't a threat, at least not now.  
"You've brought items with you? So you knew it was me asking to meet you here?" Velvet asked.

"Come on, I didn't become chief by being the dumbest cop on the force! Judging by the busted handwriting it would have either been you or any five year old in Stilwater," he chuckled.  
Vivi scoffed at his comment, writing's hard, what can she say? It's not like she ever got to go to school or anything.  
"As I said, I've brought these tapes," he thumbled around in his coat before pulling out three audio cassette tapes, "These are recordings of phone calls from before and after the boat incident."

Cassette tapes, huh? She's seen Pierce use ones to listen to music, he needed a device to play them though.

"I'm assuming you've brought a cassette player as well?" Velvet inquired.  
"No, you will listen to them when you're back at whatever place you call home these days," he ordered.  
She didn't like the way he told her what to do but she had little choice.  
"I wonder what's on these, that makes you want to be out of my presence when I check them," Velvet pondered threatingly, "You know I will just sneak into your office again if there's anything bad on them, right? Or should I just skip ahead and plant one right between your eyes while we're already here?"

There it was again, that dangerous look in her eyes.

"I'm not the villain in this," Troy defended himself, "I shouldn't even be giving these to you in the first place but you have the right to at least know what happened. What you do with that information is solely up to you."  
Without a word she slowly took the tapes with a free hand and put them in her coat's pocket.

"Anything else that's on your mind?" he asked as he reached for his coat again, Vivi's eyes twitched at his movement but she didn't draw her Vice 9 this time.  
Troy pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter before he extended his arm towards the Boss to offer one to her. She hesitantly accepted it.  
Velvet wasn't really a smoker, she only ever smoked with Troy as sort of a social thing back on the Row. Inhaling the smoke almost felt natural to her, hell wasn't exactly known for its fresh air, you know.  
She put the cancer stick between her lips as she leaned forward to light it alongside his own over the lighter he held between them.

The taste of tobacco made Vivi nostalgic and reminded her of simpler times.  
A time when Lin was still with them, Dex was considered a friend and Troy wasn't an undercover cop, well he always was but they didn't know that. She wasn't really mad at Troy for being a cop all this time, he never was one of them to begin with, so he didn't actually betray them.  
It was flawed logic but to her it made sense. He may have lied to the Saints but he never truely sold them out. From what Johnny told her, things got better for him in jail once Troy became chief, so maybe there was some sort of guilt he felt.

"Thanks for keeping an eye on Gat when he was locked up," Velvet said between puffs.  
"Was the least I could do," Troy explained, "Making things at least bearable in jail was within my power but I couldn't just let him free with over 300 murders to his name, ya see. That's something only you could do," he was referring to when she busted him out of court, "How'd you lose us anyway? In the reports my officers sent me they just said you vanished without a trace," Troy was curious now.  
"Forgive & Forget," she blunty stated before taking another drag of her cigarette.  
Troy looked at her dumbfounded, "Well I guess that works," he said after a few seconds, still trying to figure out whether she was bullshitting or not.

"I also have something for you," Velvet said as she reached into her coat to retrieve a sealed folder, "A lieutenant of mine gave me these the other day, some Brotherhood hideouts, not sure if you know about them already. I kinda got my hands full with the Ronin right now, so I figured I'd spread the workload."  
"I'm not one of your thugs, Red, " Troy reminded her.  
"Red?" she asked him with a laugh.  
"I don't know what else to call you, that's the name we use at the station when referring to you", he explained.  
"Whatever, I like it," Vivi said with a shrug.  
"You know, while you were in that coma, some of the guys called you "Sleeping Beauty", he was teasing her now.  
"Oh no, fuck off!" she whined, "I swear if any of those pigs touched me while I was unconscious..."  
"Don't worry, I would'a seen that through security cameras had anything happened," he assured her.  
"You were watching me sleep for 3 years through cameras?" she giggled, "That's fucking creepy," she failed to hold back her laughter now.  
"I, erm, forget it," he was flustered and took a long drag of his cigarette before continuing, "You were save, is what I was trynna say."  
"Back to these", Velvet waved her hand holding the folder, after she finally calmed down, "Are you telling me you don't want info on criminal activities in the city, Chief Bradshaw I am shocked!"  
"What I'm saying is, I'm not gonna do your dirty work," he said sternly, "But..., I can look into it, sure," he acknowledged as he accepted the photos, "Just never took you for a snitch," he quickly added.  
"¡Cállate! It's not snitching when it's people who aren't associated with you!" she corrected him.  
"So that little meeting between you and Maero didn't lead to a healthy partnership? Color me surprised," he joked.  
"Nah, he shit the bed with his business proposal," she took one last drag of her cigarette, "You'll get to take his name off the wanted list soon enough."

They were both leaning against the side of one of the huge tanks at the factories, they probably shouldn't be smoking here but when did rules ever stop her.  
"This is fucked," she decided as she stomped out the butt of the cig with her heel.  
"No shit," Troy agreed as he finished his own.  
They stepped away from the wall before looking at each other, "What now?" he asked, unsure of the next step.  
"Now you go home from working overtime and I'll meet up with my crew after this long evening at the strip club," she suggested.  
He knew what she meant, this meeting never happened. He got the info on the Brotherhood from a reliable contact and she stole those tapes from the precinct.  
It would be disastrous if anyone found out the chief of police exchanged words and intel with the most wanted woman in Stilwater while having a casual smoke.  
The Boss took one more look at him before turning around and spoke, "Farewell, Troy," Vivi uttered in a sad tone.  
"Stay outta trouble!" he called after her, knowing full well it was futile.

A single tear made its way down Velvet's cheek as she walked away from her old friend. The Boss was the last person you'd expect to cry but reconnecting with Troy brought up a mixture of emotions. She wasn't even sure if she shed tear of sadness or joy, it was good to see him again, she just hoped she wouldn't have to pull the trigger eventually.

Troy watched her disappear into the darkness. He looked at her stomped out cigarette butt, it had her DNA on it, a pretty valuable piece of evidence for any future investigations.  
He reached down to pick it up but stopped himself for a brief moment. He then reached for both his and her cigarettes before making his way back to the car he parked at the entrance of the complex.  
He threw them both in a trashcan along the sidewalk and entered his grey Capshaw.  
"Fucking litterers!" he muttered.


End file.
